The deal also includes the purchase of KIIT, a Fox station in North Platte that is closely affiliated with KNOP.

The deal is part of an 18-television station arrangement announced by the buyer, Grey Television, Inc., of Atlanta, Ga.

Most of the stations involved are located in the Dakotas and Colorado, the announcement said.

Grey also owns WOW-TV in Omaha and is working on a deal to buy KHAS-TV in Hastings.

KNOP-TV first went on the air in 1956, owned by a group of North Platte businessmen. In 1968, the station was purchased by a trio that included Ulysses A. Carlini Sr., Richard F. Shively and Harold O. Shively, who also owned KHAS-TV in Hastings.

KNOP and KHAS were purchased by Hoak Media in 2005, after the death of Richard Shively, who owned 72 percent of the KNOP company.

Channels 10&11 are new in North Platte. The station opened for business in September on the downtown bricks at the corner of Fourth and Dewey. The company has served the Lincoln-Grand Island areas for 50 years, known by its call letters KOLN-KGIN.

Grey will pay $335.0 million in cash, plus a working capital adjustment, for 15 of the stations, including KNOP, the announcement said.

If the deal is approved as expected by February, Grey will own 129 channels in 39 television markets in the U.S. and reach 7.33 percent of television households, the announcement said.